No 6823
Thursday 7 May 2026
Vol clvi No 28
pp. 445–464
The Council submits the following Graces to the Regent House. These Graces, unless they are withdrawn or a ballot is requested in accordance with the regulations for Graces of the Regent House (Statutes and Ordinances, 2024, p. 111), will be deemed to have been approved at 4 p.m. on Friday, 15 May 2026. Further information on requests for a ballot or the amendment of Graces is available to members of the Regent House on the Regent House Petitions site.§
1. That, on the recommendation of the General Board, a Professorship of Bacteriology be established for a single tenure from 1 September 2026, placed in the Schedule to Special Ordinance C (vii) 1, and assigned to the Department of Medicine.1
2. That Regulation 3 for the Leslie Stephen Lectureship (Statutes and Ordinances, 2024, p. 998) notwithstanding, Professor Lyndal Roper be permitted to deliver the next lecture after the end of Michaelmas Term 2026.2
3. That Regulation 6 for the Leslie Stephen Lectureship (Statutes and Ordinances, 2024, p. 998) be rescinded and replaced by new Regulation 6 as follows:3
6. The Electors may authorise such payment to a Lecturer from the income of the endowment fund as they may decide in each case. They may authorise such other payments from the income of the fund as may be necessary to meet expenses associated with each lecture or generally to advance the purposes of the Lectureship.
4. That Regulations 2 and 3 of the Ordinance for the J. M. Thoday Fund (Statutes and Ordinances, 2024, p. 1005) be amended to read as follows:4
2. The Fund shall be used to provide two J. M. Thoday Prizes for Genetics. The value of each of the Prizes shall be half the annual income of the Fund.
3. The Prizes shall be awarded each year by the Examiners for Genetics in Part II of the Natural Sciences Tripos, one to the candidate who shows the greatest distinction in the subject Genetics in that examination and the other to the candidate who is judged to have completed the best Part II research project.
1See the General Board’s Notice, p. 454.
2Professor Roper was elected as the next Lecturer late in Michaelmas Term 2024 and planned to speak in October 2026, but unanticipated commitments following receipt of two major awards mean that this is no longer possible. The Electors now hope to see this lecture given in Lent Term 2027, but under Regulation 3 this would be out of time.
3In its current form this regulation does not allow the Electors to decide payment to the Lecturer or to have regard to their travel costs and other personal circumstances, or to make payments promoting the general aims of the Lectureship other than to meet the expenses resulting from a particular lecture. Regulation 7 for the Leslie Stephen Lectureship anticipates that the regulations may be altered by Grace and the Electors would welcome this change.
4The Council, on the recommendation of the General Board and the Head of the Department of Genetics, has agreed to amend the regulations to enable two prizes to be awarded from the Fund.
§Accessible by members of the Regent House at https://universityofcambridgecloud.sharepoint.com/sites/RegentHousePetitions [University account required].